Most of us overrate our own abilities

Most of us overrate our own abilities

There are dangers if we overrate our own abilities. For instance, one overrates his/her driving ability (or/and car capability) by cutting into corner way too fast, the car goes under-steer and crashes. Medical News Today has a good article on talking about overrating our abilities can have serious consequences. In the article, one of the studies by Dunning showed that:

… “People tend to believe their personal risk of becoming ill from food poisoning, SARS or HIV, for example, is lower than other peoples’ risks. Students consistently think they’ve done better on exams than they really have, and surgical residents think they can perform procedures much better than their supervisors think the residents can,” said Dunning. “Likewise, from the office cubicle to the executive boardroom, people tend to hold overly inflated self-views that are only modestly related to actual performance. Often, other people — subordinates, peers and superiors — can make much better judgments about others than themselves.”…

What are your view on this argument? Do you have such experiences with overrating your own abilities causing some consequences from your action?